Choosing the Best Enclosure for a Highly Corrosive Wash Down Room
The Challenge: Housing and protecting sensitive electrical components The Monterey
Bay Aquarium (http://www.mbayaq.org), with more than 35,000 animals and plants
representing over 550 species of fishes, invertebrates, mammals, reptiles, birds and plants,
needed to move its existing electric room into one of its wash down rooms. After
discussions between Stahlin, and the project’s electrical installer, Cupertino Electric, Inc.
(CEI), San Jose, CA, it was determined that to properly house and protect important
electrical wire management components a customized enclosure would need to be built.
Consequently, an investigation of modifiable enclosure options was begun.
The Problem: Corrosion control in a wash down room
Because, in this application, electrical wire management components were to be located in
the wash down room at the aquarium, enclosure options were limited to either Type 304
stainless steel or a composite fiberglass NEMA Type 4X rated enclosure. Type 4X
enclosures are used for indoor or outdoor applications to provide a degree of protection
against falling dirt, rain, sleet, snow, windblown dust, splashing water, hose-directed water
and corrosion. They are also rated based on their ability to remain undamaged by the
external formation of ice on the enclosure. Due to the high price of steel for a Type 304
enclosure compared to the cost of a Type 4X composite fiberglass enclosure, everyone
involved in this project was inclined to select a non-metallic enclosure option. Weight
considerations --- the fact that this enclosure needed to be wall mounted --- was the final
factor in them choosing to go with a significantly lighter weight non-metallic enclosure for
this application.
Finding an Enclosure Supplier that was up to the challenge
A critical step still remained: finding an enclosure manufacturer that offered the capabilities
to effectively produce a customized composite enclosure and who could deliver product
within less than a month. At this point in the project, Electrical Distributors, in San Jose,
CA, was able to contribute through its knowledge of Stahlin Non-Metallic Enclosure and
Stahlin’s ModRight™ Program --- an in-house service that offers the capability of
producing a unique custom design through a hand lay-up process. Such products can also be
pretested for effectiveness making them ready to use upon delivery. Electrical Distributors
helped define the necessary specs, thereby enabling Stahlin to quickly expedite the
customized order and ship to the end-user well within the required turnaround time.
The Results: A properly customized enclosure that handles the corrosive environment
in the Monterey Bay Aquarium wash down room
The team at Stahlin Non-Metallic Enclosures worked with installer CEI’s CAD drawings for
an enclosure size of 78” x 38” x 11. And after some engineering clarifications the specified
enclosure was ready to be produced using the hand-lay up process. Hand-lay up is an open
molding process in which components or successive plies of reinforcing material or resinimpregnated reinforcements are applied to the mold, and the composite is built up and
worked by hand. After the enclosure was molded Stahlin took time to perform proper wash
down testing at its facility in Belding, Michigan to ensure it would meet the demands at the
aquarium. The enclosure shipped within two weeks, was quickly installed at the Monterey
Aquarium, and has performed as required by offering reliable protection for important
electrical wire management components in this very demanding wash room environment.
For Additional Information: Cupertino Electric, Inc. (CEI) designs, installs, commissions,
upgrades and maintains electrical infrastructure systems for facilities from mission critical
data centers to commercial and industrial buildings. Cupertino Electric, Inc.’s highly skilled
and experienced employees are engaged in projects nationwide with headquarters in San
Jose, California, with additional offices in San Francisco, California and Phoenix, Arizona.
Cupertino Electric, Inc. 1132 North Seventh Street San Jose, CA 95112 Phone: 408-8088000
Fax: 408-275-8575 www.cei.com
Electrical Distributors has thrived by providing customers with outstanding service for over
50 years. Electrical Distributors Co. located in San José, California started with 3
employees. Today, the company has 4 branches and over 100 employees. 1135 Auzerais
Street San Jose, CA 95126 TELEPHONE: 408-293-5818 FAX: 408-287-1152
http://www.electdist.com